Reel Access | Ep. 4: New Kids On The Block

Reel Access | Ep. 4: New Kids On The Block

Hey Mo, come here. I got to show you something here. It’s It’s so tough. I’m not going to lie. This outside? Hey, what’s one of them little K try to duck on me? I’m like, “All right, in the complex.” So, this is year 14 for me. I have not seen that before. This is getting my hospital. Let’s go. That’s the best game of my life. basketball game. What a dreamy homecoming. All right, folks. Let’s do it. We’ve had three weeks of training camp. We’ve had months and months and months to think, to dream, and now we’re going to do it. We’re going to play some basketball here in Uptown Spectrum Center. Looking absolutely fantastic. Let’s do it, everybody. Can the Hornets win their season opener for the fifth consecutive year? That’d be a story. But I’m trying. Uh it doesn’t really sink in until until you get out there for a game. And then I honestly didn’t know how much I was going to play going into the game. And so I was just ready for whatever. And then coach said I was starting. I was like, “Oh, okay. Here we go. We’re really doing this.” Hey, just real fast. What I want to show, you know, you take it as it comes. And it’s so surreal. It’s like you kind of just have to take it in. There’s no way to prepare for it. Hive on three. One, two, three. Opening night. Feel good be back in our gym. We got all the fans. Uh try to get a win for y’all. I was just really excited. I think that’s the feeling you should have. I mean, obviously a little bit a little bit of nervousness in there, but anything other than those two emotions, I feel like is a little weird. Um cuz I mean, we’ve been practicing and playing preseason for a while now, so should you feel prepared and try not to make it anything bigger than it is. you know, you don’t really think, at least I never really thought that I’d play in the NBA um until recently. So, being being able to do it is just, you know, I’m just I don’t take it for granted. Um I don’t act like I’m supposed to be here or not. Now, I kind of do after, you know, put in the all the work in the in the offseason and you feel like you belong, but just really cool and just a great opportunity to, you know, play play the game of basketball and, you know, do it for a living. I think that’s a really special thing. That’s love. I’ve heard a few guys say it through the course of our preseason games. If we bring the physicality from the junk, we put ourselves in a great position. So, just challenge yourselves to who’s going to be the guy on this team tonight to start the game with that type of physicality. All right. From the junk. Start the season right. Come on, brother. Let’s go. Come on. Busting our ass. Let’s go out here. Let’s go earn us one. Let’s go hunting. All right. Buck defense on three. 1 2 3. Yeah. Honestly, the emotions were everywhere. I had to remind myself that that was to be expected and to kind of bring myself down when I could. Here we go. But it was exciting. Like you said, I worked for so long to be in the NBA. Like when I checked in the game for the first time, I looked around and I was like, this is freaking cool. It’s opening night in the newly reimagined Spectrum Center and hopes are sky high for the Charlotte Hornets who tip off the new season tonight against the Brooklyn Nets. We’re doing it everybody. The 36th season of Charlotte Hornets basketball tipping off from the newly renovated Spectrum Center. whole life. Definitely like right before tip off. You’re in that weird time where you’re just kind of standing on the court waiting for the game to start and you’re looking around like, “All right, here we go.” The atmosphere is awesome and you’re looking at other guys you’ve been watching on TV for years and it’s like, “Wow, I’m really on the same court as these guys. the locals. How about that? Two rookie starters for the first time in the franchise history. Ryan Kritter and both block takes it away. No look passing. Get out ahead of the pack can do second sets up. Oh my goodness. Keep the assist to section. Outstanding opening night here at the opener. And how about a standing ovation D? And it’s going to be ups and downs. The whole year is going to be ups and downs. We got to learn how to rap with them. There you are. KJ T, good. Y not rookies no more, man. Great job. Great win. Uh really good job. I think like that fourth quarter turn it into a 20point fourth quarter. So like much better job defensively that third quarter though like as we can always find ways to keep getting better. The other thing that I did love though about the team all night, I thought we were really unselfish. And so it’s besides that end of the game where we had to be a little bit tighter with the ball and actually value every possession. Like winning and not getting bored with building winning habits has to be important to us. Like we build leads, we got to keep foot on their throat knowing that they’re going to probably make some type of run. And how do we come together and embrace that adversity and get back on the right path? Okay, but let’s just keep building h winning habits. Last thing, four rookies. Can I get y’all up here? Liam, don’t be scared. Congratulations on your first NBA victory. Your contribution has been huge all preseason. Contribution was huge tonight. Whether you played, whether you didn’t play it, uh we feel it. All right. You guys have been amazing. So, congrats on your first NBA victory. We’re really excited. Hey, 1 2 3. Beautiful day in Philly today. Hope flight was smooth. Um coming together throughout the game. Um there’s some things that we can obviously do better, but was really happy I think with our overall competitiveness and our effort and attention to the game plan was good. loved our pace and like the thing I challenged you guys on is can we sustain our pace from the beginning of the game to the end of the game but also the passing was really good 33 assist and then again the like the unselfishness on top of it I love from you guys this play like I almost just wanted to walk to the locker room after this this was beautiful that’s high level you know how many people would have just shot this bad thinking about a teammate and like this team is different and you know we’ve added some guys that I think have winning mentalities that are all about just trying to impact winning. We have some vets that are hell of an anchor. We have a guy that’s won a championship. Mace has been here before but played with some superstar players. He’s been in the playoffs before. Like we have a different group, a different mindset. And I think that if we want different results, we can’t be thinking of this place as the hornets of old or what we’ve done is old. Okay, I love what Trey said, like we have to expect to win. We got to be hunting people a little bit more. But even when we’re in the game, I just want us thinking about how are we going to think differently? How are we going to act differently? Cuz I’ll tell you who wants to win more than anybody. That guy and that guy. The only way you build these leads is to do it together. What happens? We play good defense. They made a good play. Trey, here we go, guys. They score. Don’t overreact. Bring it in. Let’s run this play. Let’s do that. I want to see more of that. This is what’s going to help us get to where we want to get to. This is acting differently. We want to practice different. We want to work different. We want to be different than everybody else in this league. Let’s go have a good practice. That kind of makes it look like Yeah, our rookies, uh, they they came in, they hit the ground running. Uh it started from day one, trickled into summer league and winning a championship, but the habits that they bring, the mindset, the basketball IQ, the competitiveness, um I can kind of go on and on and on. Uh but they have definitely um earned the opportunity to be out there in the starting lineup and I think that everyone gets to see why. Uh it’s no surprise they’ve been playing this way um since day one, and it’s it’s it’s been great to see. So this is this is year 14 for me. I have not seen that before. Like you you you might get lucky. There’s usually like one that you might see get in the rotation, but to have four rookies that come in and carve out a niche for themselves this early on in their careers, it’s uh it’s not common. Gets it to who’s got five. Now, still very early in his pro career, but he is factually the greatest first quarter player in the history of the NBA. He’s got instincts like he’s been in in the league for a little bit. He’s just a really smart player, smart defender. He’s got some wisdom with him that, you know, you don’t typically see from rookies. So, it it definitely helped his his game on both ends. Honestly, it took a minute all through like training camp. Even the first few games I was like, man, there’s some shots and passes and whatnot that I felt like I would normally get to and I wasn’t getting to it. Dave Mitchell throwing trying to throw a lob and I finally got my hands on it and I was like, “Thank God I finally got my hands on something.” Since then, I just like everything slowed down half a step and that’s all I needed. They don’t ask me to do anything that is like outside of my capabilities. Like I said earlier, I’m not like a go get a bucket kind of guy, but I can catch lobs and finish dump offs and whatnot. So, they just asked me to do what I’m good at and help me get in the right places and, you know, had success with it so far. Hopefully, we keep that going. Okay. So, me and my wife are obviously expecting the baby and she’s going to come really, really soon, hopefully in the next few days. So, uh, we’re really, really excited for that. Obviously, it’s a big life change, but, you know, for a little baby, a little blessing like that, we we couldn’t be more happy to overcome that challenge. So, now that we’re at the point where the baby could come any day, I’ve been giving my phone to someone during practice or games so that if my wife does call and says it’s time, then then she can let us know and I we can figure out either I leave right away or how that timing is going to work. But things when they cause anxiety, cause more of a distraction. And since this has been so good good to us and and such a happy moment for us, it’s just kind of added to this whole experience of being a rookie in the NBA this year and everything that comes with it. So, it’s been great. Uh an amazing 24 hours. I have not been home in a while, but that’s okay. Been have been the best 24 hours of my life. Ryan, what’s up, man? You guys have scissors so I can get my hospital bracelet on. Let’s go. Gosh, man. Well, congratulations. Thank you guys. Thanks. You I’m going to keep it, but I need to get it off. This is a big moment right here. They have not been to my house since before the liquor. Isn’t it crazy? Isn’t it wild? How’s it feel? Amazing. It is so awesome. Just so awesome. She’s been She’s been really good, too. I was so surprised the baby, but she’s had really good stretches of just like chilling. She’s a 9 lb baby, too. So, not not a small. Thank you. How long? 22 in. Yeah, she’s a tall girl. She’s a tall girl. Congratulations. Congrats, brother. Yeah. Sounds like No, I’m raising her as a guard. You couldn’t sleep. I know you couldn’t. I barely flew, man. I had the best game of my life. So, you didn’t get no sleep last night, man. I I slept in a little bit. Wasn’t a normal night. It’s a good night right there. You got new member to the fan. Honorary. We’re doing it. And we’re doing it with a proud new papa, Ryan Culpr runner. He’s going to be playing in his 11th NBA game, but his first as a proud papa in season when you were Oh, brother. Way to go, Papa. How about that? Oh, pretty moved to get in the lane. Gets it to Coiner who’s got five. Cre one-handed rebound. Still hasn’t missed. He’s perfect in the first quarter through 11 games. Must out. He has 35 made threes. Ryan K better continues his perfect night. Turner tries Kranner. Yes. Bad idea. Lay this softly up. And Kranner with a pin on the other end. Three in a row. And Ryan Kraner is still the only guy in the NBA this year to have a four block four steel game. It’s not just the father. I mean, just the greatest couple days of my life, you know, seeing my little girl come into the world. Uh, my wife did an amazing job in labor. She was the best. Yeah, it has been awesome. I think Liam’s got a certain swag to him. He’s not afraid of anything. He comes in, he’s diving on the floor. Like, he’s playing hard. He can score. He doesn’t care who’s in in front of him. Like, he’s not backing down from anybody. I think I’ve always been a good teammate. I mean, these guys have made it easy. I love them. We’ve gotten so close. I’d give myself up for my teammate, dive on the floor for him. They do the same for me. So, it’s easy when you got that kind of relationship. I think the good thing with Seion, he’s been flexible. um and a lot of our guys have. And I think when you look at some of the matchups and you know the impact he’s had thus far in the season, like he can guard um he can flat out guard. That’s his elite NBA skill right now. Um and he’s made shots which which always helps, but you know, his defensive impact uh makes it hard to not play him. Um whether that’s starting or coming off the bench, like you know, you need those minutes when when somebody can come out there and really guard. There you go, kid. just go. Yeah. Well, I mean, one of the big things that they’ve had me do is just let me know that going into any game, I’ll be guarding the other teams, like their best perimeter players, and that’s been that’s been really exciting for me. It’s cool cuz I mean, it’s like I said, it’s just another challenge. It’s something that I’ve done in the past, but never to this degree. And that’s something that they say they all want me to be ready for and continue to take steps improving there. I feel like it’s somewhere that I can uh really make a name for myself in this league and something more importantly that I can really help the team with. There’s certain guys that come into the game and, you know, if you’re an offensive player, you look at them and you’re like, you know, I don’t really want to mess with him today. So, we strive for team defense and we want to guard together um as a unit, but it always helps when you got one guy out there that can just, you know, take care of business. Yeah, Cion and Khan are two of the best guys that I’ve coached. They uh are incredibly competitive. Uh they have high character. They treat everybody around them with great respect. Uh, and then on the floor, they’re big- time competitors. They they know how to play the game. They make their teammates better. They’re everything you could ask for from a coaching perspective. And they both came to Duke without any guarantees or promises. They understood it would be, you know, a challenge when they got here and they embrace that every step of the way. Uh, I would say his focus. You know, there’s certain guys that you come across like when they shoot the ball, you think it’s going in every time, and Khan’s got that that look, uh, and obviously that touch. So, he’s very confident. Uh, and it comes from his work. You know, he’s in here every day and he’s shooting and he’s, you know, focusing on the right things and he’s studying film and, um, he’s putting so much effort into his craft that it’s that it makes sense, um, when he’s out there on the court and he shoots and the ball’s going in. What’s up guys? Miltown. We in Milwaukee. We’re conlex MTV Cribs. MTV cribs. MTV cribs. Mrs. How are you guys? Good to see you. Well, yeah. Hey, Mo. Come here. I got to show you something here. I got to show you something here. It’s It’s so tough. I’m not going to lie. This outside? Yeah. It’s just in here in the porch. In the porch. Hey, which one of them little K’s trying to dunk on me? I’m all right. Y’all going to see. All right. Hey, Marlo. Come here. Let me show you something. As soon as you too many of them, like I said, the boys are all happy. They’re all 15s. So they Wait, everyone except for the baby. I was Yeah, but he’s on he’s on his way. So yeah. Oh, he’s off. He’s only he’s on his way. I’m a 13y old man. I don’t know why he can’t like it. His last bucket was last bucket at his home. Jeff g in real life. It looked like he dumped yard like y know K2 had this one. That this is the picture they’re all talking about. That was his go. In real life, it looked like he was napkin. Napkin napkin. Yeah, it was cool. Uh, you know, taking the bus on my street going going home. That was that was weird. And a bunch of bunch of NBA players in my house. It was it was a a lot of big people. Um, but my my family enjoyed it. My brothers definitely enjoyed it and it was a good time. Did you grow up thinking you might feel about that? Not really. This song absolute banger. Yeah, for sure. Well, the first time I actually met him was at combine, but I had no idea who he was and so he was doing these combine drills and you know, you later learned that he was like trying to like get a feel for whatever. So, I met him there and then seeing him on draft night was that was like funny. I was like, “Oh, shoot. I didn’t even didn’t even put that together that he was coach for the Hornets and he’s from Watertown, not Milwaukee.” So, we can’t give him that. That’s big. Taking a pit stop at Culver. So, yeah, I think that bonds definitely helped. Bounce it back, twist it, and then just shoot a pull-up. Okay. All right. Jordan love to Romeo Dod’s connection. He’s throwing dart back shoulder darts. You get that wins. Thus ends my three-game winning streak. But hopefully that’s a good sign. I was going to ask what my percentage was last game because I really tried. I know, but our like team crash rate was like 88% which is that’s elite. So like So yeah, my high school has like 50 feeder schools and there’s like the big opening tournament and so they canceled Friday night because they’re everybody’s going to the game. Yeah, it’s really cool. Um, you know, growing up playing in that with your friends and my brothers and cousins and stuff. So, I think that that’s really cool that, you know, it’s kind of coming full circle and that all those people want to come out and watch me play. Oh, the canipples in the crowd says, “Yeah, that’s our guy.” He has now played in 12 NBA games. He’s had at least one three-pointer in every single one. Just amazing how he has adjusted to the NBA game so quickly. Loose. Cops got it. What do you got, young man? That’s what I’m talking about. Second pro hammer strength two of the 10 rows of onions. Coniple Khan’s had a nice day and the beat continues. Second three for the rookie. It just made him so unbelievably different. Oh yes, the rookie catal turns the corner. Yes. Second punch of the night. Starts with Bridges. Right to Kiple. Tie ball game. Oh yeah. Hornets have a keeper. Bounced right to the best shooter on the floor and he bottomed it. What a dreamy homecoming this is for the kid from right here in Milwaukee. He’s got 32 points. Coming back here and getting that kind of love is cool. Um, you know, wish we got the win. Would have made it a little cooler, but um, you know, hard fought camp. My high school put on an event, so I’m going to go say what’s up to all those. And then it was, uh, wells night, my church cinned. Um, so there’s a bunch of people there for that, too. I had a very short This is awesome. This is awesome. Um, you know, tonight’s a really special night for me, you know, playing in the hometown and to see you guys all show up for me, that’s that’s so cool. So special. Um, some of you are probably happy we didn’t win tonight. Um, I’m not. Um, but having you guys all here is is really really cool. Um, I’m really really thankful and uh I hope you guys had a fun time tonight cuz I certainly did. Um, thanks guys. I really really appreciate it. Oh, I failed completely. That was the worst. That was the worst fail of all time. I he hit the ceiling. Just crazy. Almost broke his neck on that, but not. Yeah. Did he Did he try to get you back? No, he didn’t really do anything. No, he was too scared of him actually. He’s just I puny I practiced. I was I was like six, seven inches taller than him though. So like I would say that the biggest difference is probably our our competitiveness. You know, we’ve had some games that haven’t gone our way for different reasons, but you know, guys come in every day and they’re they’re competitive and they’re ready to compete and take on whatever is next. Uh, you know, we don’t we don’t hang our head as a group. You know, stay positive, focus on getting better each and every day, and, you know, get ready for the next game.

Reel Access | Ep. 4: New Kids On The Block features Charlotte Hornets rookies Kon Knueppel, Ryan Kalkbrenner, Sion James, and Liam McNeeley as they begin their careers in the NBA for the Charlotte Hornets.

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